As diverse as Quentin Tarantino's first films (“Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown”) were in tone (tragic, comic and romantic, respectively), they all took place within roughly the same world and the same genre — urban crime. The iconic status that accrued to him in that genre could easily have hardened into a straitjacket. In addition, his dialogue is so relentlessly contemporary that he seemed about as well suited for a 19th century period piece as Ang Lee was for a CGI superhero project like “Hulk.”